


Hiter, Grifter, Hacker, Theif.

by Butterkup



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, F/M, M/M, minor cross dressing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:57:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2785805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterkup/pseuds/Butterkup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unemployed and teetering on the edge, Erik Lehnsherr is approached about a Robin Hood-like scheme. He enlists the help of the best thieves and grifters in the business, and with their help, he steals from the rich and gives to the poor to help balance the crooks in high power positions. He and his team help provide...leverage.<br/>...<br/>Does anyone else think I should continue this?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Here you are Mr. Lehnsherr, " The bartender said, handing the tall German man his drink, “I’ve also checked and the next shuttle to the airport leaves in twenty minutes.” The bartender then gave him another smile and walked back to where ever she came from before. At ten in the morning, no one was exactly drinking besides him. Erik sat alone at the bar stool, swishing the amber colored liquid around, and gulping down a large sip, scowl marring his face.

"Excuse me, Mr. Lehnsherr?--”

At the sound of the new voice, Erik turned to see a brunette, place a suit jacket and briefcase on the bar next to him, following the motion with his eyes until he gazed at the man. He was tall, light haired, and thin. By the looks of him, he was definitely a businessman. His tie was perfectly aligned with his button up, his jacket was dry cleaned and his briefcase was real leather by the stitching. He took a minute and got settled into the seat on the other side of her purse, thankfully didn’t try to move her things to situate himself.

"Hello Mr. Lehnsherr, sorry to bother you, but I'm Sebastian Shaw." Mr. Shaw then held his hand out, smile still carrying on his lips.

"I’ve heard so much about you." Shaw states, retracting his hand after Erik refused to take it. "I know for example that when you found that stolen Monet painting in Florence back in 2008? You saved your insurance company what, 30 million dollars?”

Taking another sip of his drink Erik’s frown grew, as the man mentioned his old employer.

“And then there was that stolen identity case in Venice, I couldn’t believe how many millions of dollars you saved for your company, but I just know that when you needed them… What happened to your family is the kind of thing--"

Without warning Erik slams his now, empty glass down onto the bar top. "You know that part of the conversation where I punch you in the neck about nine or ten times? We're coming up on that pretty quick."

The German’s eyes met his and he watched Shaw’s smile drop and a look of panic flashed over his features, putting his hands up in a gesture of defense, his face showing his regret in his words. “Look, I’m sorry. I just want to offer you a job."

"What kind of job?" Erik replied with a half lidded stare.

“Do you know anything about airplane designs?” he asked, looking a little more at ease.

Erik smirks, flagging down the waiter for another drink as he passes, "I could try giving it a shot. Just give me a pencil and one of those little rulers."

"Well somebody stole my airplane designs."

The anger that flashes across the once stoic man, only causes Erik to laugh. "I see… So then you would like me to find them?  Correct?"

"No," Shaw says, shaking his head, the neutral headed look back in place. "I know where they are. I want you to steal them back."

Erik looks at him in mild surprise. "Steal them back?"

Shaw nods again. "Look, one day my head engineer just suddenly up and disappears with all my files and a week later, Harry Leland, my competitor launches an identical project? Come on, I'm not stupid."

Erik swirls the amber liquid around again. "And you’re sure Leland was the one who stole your designs? I mean stealing them back seems like a stupid risk, there are probably much easier ways…"

"Please listen to me." Shaw says cutting the German off. "At the end of this month I have a shareholder’s meeting. Mr. Lehnsherr, I’ve already spent, five years, and over 100 million dollars on R&D. If I go into that meeting with nothing to show for it? Then I am dead.”

Erik says nothing, taking another sip of his drink as Shaw quickly began to flip through the stack of folders inside his briefcase. He then pulls out a thin red folder and held it out for the other man. “Just look at the people I’ve already hired. Do you recognize any of these names?"

Raising another brow and setting down his drink, the German took the folder flipping through the papers.

Oh yeah, he knew them. He just didn’t know why these criminals would want to work with some CEO of a minor airplane company. Erik understood that he held lots of power in the stock market but this was a bit minuscule compared to the amount talent.

“Yeah, I’ve chased all of them at one time or another” the German mumbled, his eyes scanning information and names. He paused at the next criminal and gave Shaw a look.

"Mystique? You have Mystique?"

"Is there someone better?” Shaw's question was not smug but a genuine need for clarification that he had hired the best of the best. This guy was desperate if he was playing with fire like this lot.

"No…. but Mystique is insane…”

“Which is why I need you.”

Erik glanced at the folders again before moving his hand away to close it. The ex-insurance investigator placed it back on the bar, leaning back into the stool and crosses his arms over his chest.

“No,” he said sternly, “I’m not a thief.”

“I don’t need thieves, thieves I got. I just need a good honest man,” he held his gaze, “to watch them.”

“There's no way this is going to work.” The German said, his eyes leaving Shaw’s to glance at the master plan that was thrown across the bar top. “All of them have one thing in common. They all work alone. There is no way that they are going to work for you.”

“For $300,000 each, they will.”

That caught his attention. Erik leaned forward again, gazing at the man who seemed to be in more of a bind than he was. Shaw leaned forward aswell, at one point he had rolled up the sleeves of his button up to his elbows. Dark eyes met.

“Look, for running it, I’ll double it for you. I’m desperate here, Mr. Lehnsherr,” He whined, moaned, did that sad frown with his mouth that made Erik compassionate heart twitch. NOT. “And that’s just the salary, there’s a bonus." Erik perked up at that. "Laley is insured by I.Y.S, your old bosses. It’s a 50 million dollar intellectual property rights policy on these designs.”

His words hung in the air and for a moment Erik wanted to walk away. But something he couldn’t explain kept him still.

“Now my question for you Mr. Lehnsherr is… how badly do you want to screw the insurance company that let your wife die?”


	2. Chapter 2

The room of the building Erik ‘occupied’ at the top floor was dark with the exception of his laptop and a couple other devices. The night sky and the skyscraper that stood as tall the money stacks it made glared at them from across the street.

With a quick plug in and switch, the projector took the blueprints of their mark to a whole new level, a 3D moveable image of all the inner workings and setup of the building that housed the stolen designs. Erik placed in his earpiece, the microphone reaching toward his mouth while it hooked around his ear.

“Okay, clear comms?” he asked, another couple of clicks and the image moved, showing the many levels until it got to the main floor with the computer engineering systems. Instantly, the small red blinking lights indicated the motion detectors and alarms on the floor.

_‘Just one question? Where on earth did you get these? The 80’s having a garage sale?’_

Erik rolled his eyes.

“Beast, just put them on and shut up?” The German warned.

The hacker glared at the ear pieces the ex-investigator had given them shaking his head. The young nerd knew that Erik was not as tech savvy as he’d like to think. While he relied on himself for most of his work, people like Beast and Mystique relied on their equipment. Which meant Beast was not too proud of what kind of tech they’d be sporting.

“I got something nicer.” Beast smiled, picking up a clear container. The boy turned to the crew, holding it open, “It’s a bone conduction earpiece mic. It’ll pick up on the vibrations in your jaw. You can hear everything."

The brunette then turned and held out the box to Havok. He was a bit shorter than Beast imagined but the brunette knew better than to base everything on looks alone. Something criminals learn right off the bat if they wanted to stay alive, or out of prison.

The hitter picked up the small clear ear bud, giving it a once over before placing it in his ear. He was dressed in black as well, casually with a plain black beanie that kept his bright blond hair from view. Havok gave the hacker a look, “So you’re not as useless as you look.”

Beast glared at him, “I don’t even know what you do.”

The brute gave him a glare right back, but he knew better than to knock out the only guy who was tapped into the alarm systems. Zipping up his black jacket,  the blond man keeled down to make sure everything in his black bag was where it was supposed to be.

Beast let out a breath moving back to his own bag to retrieve his laptop, obviously relieved that he didn’t need to confront the man who could probably kill him with one hand behind his back. His bright eyes raised to the blond woman sitting on top of the pulley she had put together, her black converse swinging while she strapped on her harness, her clothes blended her into the night along with the rest of them from the top of her long blond hair pulled into her beanie to the tips of her toes. The thief flipped easily around the pulley so that she was upside down in front of the hacker, top of her beanie brushing his keyboard.

“Can I have one?” she asked, flashing a white smile. Mystique was famous, her hits were squeaky clean and there was almost no paper trail on her unless someone had an up and personal encounter with her. She was about the cash not the con. She didn’t fool around and was never at someone’s hire, until now.

Beast swallowed hard and nodded, holding out the box for her.

“You can have the whole box.” He mumbled.

“What are you gonna do when she finds out you live with your mom?” Havok quipped with a smirk.

Beast sighed and dropped the container back into his bag, getting back to his laptop while ignoring the hitter smirking at his expense, his fingers quickly going to work.

_“Are you guys done?”_

“Waiting on you Lehnsherr.” Havok said, heading toward the roof entrance.

_“Focus. On my count.”_

Mystique gave a pull at her wire, the harness taking most of the weight, elevated on her pulley system to give her an angle. She leaned back to test it, smiling as she ran her leather clad fingers over the clip.

“Last time I used this rig, Paris, 2006.” She said in memory, a small smile played at her lips. Beast gave her a look before going back to his screen with a smile of his own. Setting the security cameras on loop was the easy part, deactivating the alarm system for the likes of Beast was easy too. But the blond would be on her own with the pressure detectors.

 _“Wait you’re talking about the Corbascio? You stole that?”_ Erik's voice pierced their ear drums.

Havok tapped his ear with a sneer, “Are these things even safe?”

Beast shrugged at his question and looked up as if in thought, “Yeah, it’s completely safe, it’s just, you know, you might experience…well…nausea, weakness in your right side, stroke…strokie-ness….”

The hitter glared at the computer geek. “You’re precisely why I work alone.”

 _“Guys listen up, we’re going to go on my count, not a second sooner. Mystique, no freelancing.”_ Lehnsherr’s voice interrupted the moment.

Havok pressed a finger to the ear bud, “Hey, relax, we know what we’re doing.”

_“On. My. Count. Five…four…three…”_

With quick movements, and a yell of excitement, the black clad thief ran toward the edge of the building, launching herself off the ledge and into the air. The rope on her harness pulled at the wheel it was hooked to, giving her lead as she free fell down the side of the building upside down.“She's gone.” Havok stated fingers pressed back to the com

 _“Son of a bitch.”_ Erik swore,

Running to the edge both blond and brunette peered down at the thin figure as she fell, until the measured rope pulled to slow stop in front of one of the many windows on the skyscraper. 

“That’s twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag.”


	3. Chapter 3

_“Okay then, everyone into position.”_

Mystique placed a delicate hand hand the the edge of the glass paneled window, eyes moving to the small black box in the corner of the room. _“_ Vibration detectors are on.”

_“No cutting Mystique, use the binary.”_

The blond nodded, removing the sleek black tube from her pocket, the paste burnt a nice sized hole through the glass. With a careful hand Mystique climbed halfway through the hole, until she released  the clip from her harness.

The thief found the main frame of the elevators easily, tucking herself into the small closet sized space to hook up Beast's device to the hard drive. The small handheld screen lit up the moment it synced with the mechanics, all elevator controls were now in her hands.

_“Mystique, how are you doing?”_

“Got it.” The Thief replied, “Cameras are on loop and I have sights on the surveillance room.”

_“Good. Havok?”_

The hitter was quick to make it back to his post, throwing open the latch to the building’s elevator shaft. “Headed down.” Havok threw down the large duffel before making his way down metal ladder, arms extended for the skinny geek. Beast stared down at the elevator shaft, encased in darkness until he heard a low growl.

“Sometime today would be nice.”

As quickly as he could, Beast began to clamber down until one of his feet slipped causing the bifocal man to fall, when strong arms looped around him.

Glancing up, Beast saw that Havok had caught him one arm looped under his legs, the other looped behind his back and around his waist. With one arm the hitter released the geeks legs letting them hit the ground as he reached into his back pocket to retrieve a glowstick his other arm still around the blue eyed man’s waist. With a hard crack against the latter, the darkness was penetrated by an eerie green glow.

Just then, the elevator under the duo jerked before starting its way down to their destination.

_"Boys are on their way."_

The main software lab was on the fourteenth floor and with a twenty three story building, the thief had to get in and control the elevators without letting the guards see them moving. Just another screen on a loop in the security room. Havok waited for the metal box to come to a halt before unlatching the escape hatch to the top of the car. With ease, the blond jumped into the elevator pulling the skinny brunnette with him just as the doors dinged open.

Taking the duffle bag from Havok, Beast pulled out what looked like a large calculator attached to a card with a single strip down the side.

Handing the duffel back to blonde, they made their way down the hall and to the right, the elevator doors stayed open for their escape. The door stuck out from the rest of the floor, a bolted steel with no handle surrounded by storage cages with prototype pieces, file boxes and doorways that lead to more secrets that they didn’t bother putting into the system. As soon as he put the fake card into the lock, the machine lit up in his hands. Ten green numbers changed quickly while the device began to crack the password to get in.

“Huh, a Ten-digit password. Not bad.” Beast remarked with a small smile, obviously intrigued at the security protection

Havok put his back to the skinner man, looking out at the way they came. The right turn they made into the hall made it easier to protect but hopefully they would be in and out in a couple of minutes.

 _“You got any chatter on their frequencies??”_ Erik's voice said through the coms.

The blond thief gave a confused look. _“No. Why?”_

_“There's eight guards listed on the duty roster, but only four at the guard post.”_

Mystique switched the screens until she came across the guard room, “I can't even tell how many guys are in the room. How can you tell who's who?”

_“Count the haircuts, Mystique. Count the haircuts.”_

_“I would have missed that...”_ the blonde whispered slowly, flipping through more of the camera screens.

_“What was that?”_

_“Got 'em!”_ The thief cursed under her breath, _“They’re doing their rounds an hour early! Why the fu--”_

 _“The playoffs.”_ the German answered, watching from the large window of the opposite building. _“They doing the rounds an hour early so they can watch the playoffs.”_

 _“Shit guys, they noticed the elevator stuck on the fourteenth floor. They’re coming your way.”_ Mystique voice was in a panic now.

Beast shook the device as it cracked another number, only seven more to go.

 _“Mystique where are they exactly?”_ Erik replied calmly

 _“South east just down the hall.”_ Mystique informed over the com.

 _“Alright.”_ The older of the four announced over the coms, _“Here's what we got to do, Havok I want you to clear the zone, use Beast as bait.”_ Erik instructed, his voice not even hesitating despite his rather traitorous words.

“Bait?” the nerd whispered in slight panic, looking over at the blond, who was already taking off his jacket, heading around the corner leaving the brunette all by his lonesome.

 _“They’re close.”_ Mystique  warned.

“Just, come on.” Beast then cursed, slapping his slim hand against the side of it again. Six more numbers to go. This was supposed to be an in and out job. His bright eyes watched the numbers spin, waiting for them to stop so that the damn door would open.

He could hear the footsteps down the hall, the echoing voices as the men tried to get through to the other guards with their coms. Luckily that had already been taken care of.

“I can’t, I’m done.” Beast sighed, letting go of the device so that it hung off the lock pad. He grabbed the duffel off the floor, grabbing Havok’s jacket and took a couple steps toward the way they came.

“Freeze!”

The hacker looked up just as four security guards set up in formation in front of him, blocking the only exit down the hall. Four clicks echoed around him, each gun barrel pointed at him and ready to fire with any sudden move. He pursed his lips, folding his hands behind his head, letting the bag drop to the ground. He flashed his best worried, innocent face at them.

“Look, I’m just checking that everything--”

Beast caught his words, pausing his charade just as Havok came from around the corner behind the four guards. There was a flash of what looked like amusement in the man’s eyes before any of them noticed he was even there. Like flipping a switch, the situation changed. Havok grabbed one of the guy’s hands that held his gun, before planting a well-placed punch into his solar plex. As the man asked for air, he squeezed the trigger and fired but Havok still had his hand on his wrist so it was all too easy to jerk the gun in the direction of the ceiling.

It was like a well-staged choreography. Havok made quick work of each guard, mostly disarming them or using shitty aim against the other. In under two minutes, each guard was unconscious and lying on the floor. Beast was surprised that the man didn’t kill anyone.

The hitter smirked and looked at the nerd.

“That’s what I do.” Havok said smirking proudly.

A sharp beep turned both men back to the matter at hand, the compression steel door popped open as the device finished cracking the ID code. They didn’t say a word to each other, just a look before they both headed for the door. The inside of it was filled with towering hard drives the size of filing cabinets, each lit up and connecting to a single monitor. Stock market dependent companies tended to hide their most precious things in such room.

Havok smirked giving a pretty good shove too beasts shoulder. "Good job Bozo.”

 _“Guys, I need you to talk to me.”_ Erik's voice rang through their coms.

“We’re in,” Beast replied, plucking the flash drive from his pocket and placing it into the side of the monitor. “I'm stripping the drives now.” A window opened, filled with scrolling code as it took everything from the hard drives including the stolen designs. Havok took it upon himself to drag the crumpled unconscious bodies of the guards into the cramped room, laying them side by side. Of course not before he duct taped their wrists and mouths. Beast watched the monitor until the window disappeared and in its place was another separate window with the words ‘No Files’ flashed at him.

He took out the flash drive with the information and pocketed it in a different pocket before taking a smaller drive and placing it into the monitor. A window popped up before the screen began to flicker out. Each hard drive around them began to flicker before shutting down, leaving the once glowing room in darkness.

“Did you give'em a virus?” The blond male asked looking at his own handy work with the guard.

“More than one virus, my friend.” The nerd replied.

 _“Problem,”_ Mystique interrupted over the com, _“Those guards you ganked? They reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us. We can't go up.”_

Havok exited the room and grabbed the duffel bag, throwing the duct tape back inside.

“Every man for himself.” He said swiftly, heading back down the hall.

“That's fine, I’m the one with the merchandise.” Beast rolled his eyes, tossing the brute a glare.

 _“Yeah well I’m the one with a fucking exit."_ Mystique argued.

 _“And I'm the one with the plan.”_ Erik stated, his voice clear and direct. _“Now I know you children don't play well with others, but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes. So, get to the elevator and head down. We're going to the burn scam."_

They all moved without question, each knowing their jobs. Despite never working in a team, Erik noticed that they took order when under pressure. They headed back to the elevator quickly, getting in and pressing the button for the first floor. Havok dropped the duffel bag and began to pull out their new clothes.

“Going to plan ‘b’?”  Havok questioned sliding on a pair of fake glasses and gelling his hair back.

 _“Technically this would be plan ‘g’.”_ The German replied, they could hear him closing up cases and shuffling around.

By the time they got to Mystique’s floor, both were in button down shirts and slacks, ties and blazers. Old clothes were underneath but hidden with a look of professionalism. Mystique stepped onto the elevator and began to strip as well, pulling on her own disguise of proper office wear from her own large purse.

“How many plans do we have? Is there a plan ‘m’?” Mystique asked as Havok pulled out a blue Velcro leg brace from his duffel, kneeling to slide it around Mystique's bare calf. He grumbled as he had to press his face into the side of her knee length skirt to keep her steady.

 _“Beast dies in plan ‘m’.”_ Erik commented, a car starting in the background.

“I like plan ‘m’.” Havok stated. Beast looked annoyed rolling his eyes and placed the latex burn onto Mystique’s cheek as the blond male held out the liquid adhesive for him.

“Hold still.” Havok hissed as Mystique jerked to pull her hair out of its ponytail, the blond tresses falling around her shoulders. It was a sharp contrast to the light grey of her suit jacket.

“I’m trying.”

With the last ‘ding’ of the elevator, the doors opened like a curtain. Both men slapped on concerned faces as Mystique hobbled out of the elevator on her fold out cane with a look of pain. The duffel bag was carried over Havok’s  shoulder with a sticker that said ‘MEDICAL’ on the side while Beast held her purse with one hand on her arm to ‘steady’ the burn survivor.

The lobby security gaped, covering the gun he readied at his waist. Havok glared him.

“What cha starin’ for? What’s wrong with you?” he hollered angrily as Beast ushered Mystique to the door.

“S-Sorry, I didn’t mean--” the baby faced guard blushed in embarrassment.

“its okay, Bob...” The blond woman sniffed, “I’m used to it.”

“Get the door.” Havok ordered indignantly.

The security guard held open the door for the three of them, the men allowing the victim to walk through first before rushing to her aid. As soon as they heard the door click clothes behind them, a silver Lexus pulled up to the curb. Beast glanced behind them and watched as the security turned his back to the door to take a tongue lashing from another concerned officer.

“Go, go, go...” Beast hissed.

Mystique threw her cane to Havok who took the front seat as Beast ran around the car. Within seconds the thieves were in and out without a trace left behind.

~.~

“What’s taking so long?” Havok growled.

“Hold on, I’m going.” Beast snapped back.

All four of them stood around the middle of the park, the tree around them couldn’t shade the way the sky began to light up as the sun rose in the early morning. Beast typed away as Erik tucked his hands into the pockets of his coat.

“Annnddd….the designs are sent.” Beast said with a grin, and closed his laptop.

“Good, the money will be in your accounts later today.” Erik said, turning his back to the group.

“Anybody noticed how awesome we were last night?” Mystique said, looking between them all as they turned their backs as well.

“One show only, no encores.” Havok rolled his eyes, passing a glare at them all.

“I already forgot your names,” Beast replied head down casted, tucking the laptop into his bag.

Havok grabbed Erik by the shoulder stopping him from walking away, all the others stopped to watch the exchange.

“How was it, Lehensherr? Being on the same side?” He smirked, blue eyes twinkled with amusment.

The ex-investigator glared at him, pulling shoulder out of his grip “We are not on the same side, I am not a thief.”

“You are now,” Mystique commented with a chuckle.

“Come on, Erik, tell the truth You have a little bit of fun doing a bit of black king, instead of white knight. Just this once” Havok teased.

There was only a laugh before they all went their separate ways.

**They worked alone.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Erik groaned, the obnoxious beeping from the bed stand made his head pound. He didn’t open his eyes, his hand flung out from under the covers, fingers feeling around the short desk. The German slapped the hotel alarm when he realized the beeping was actually ringing. Pale fingers searched for her cell phone, refusing to pop his head out from under the cotton sheets.

His fingers fell on the device, pulling it under the blankets and sliding the arrow on the screen with one motion.

“Hello?” He practically groaned out. His voice was scratchy, head throbbing. His pillow smelled of brandy and that fake clean hotel scent that clung to everything in his room.

_“You screwed me!”_

Erik winced, pulling the phone away from his ear. He pushed himself up out of the covers so that he was resting his back against the headboard.

“What are you talking about?” He hissed, closing his eyes to the sunlight that streamed in from behind the white hotel curtains.

 _“The designs never got to me!”_ Shaw’s harsh and panicked voice yelled through the receiver.

“That’s impossible, I watching it be sent.” he replied thinking back to the night before. He watched Beast download the information on his flash drive to the laptop, watched him email the designs to Shaw's personal address. It happened and there was no way that Beast would’ve went through all that trouble to just steal information that was already stolen prior. It didn’t make sense when their payday was a click away.

_“I don’t know what you saw, Ms. Lehnsherr, but I received nothing!”_

“I told you that you couldn’t trust them.” He sighed.

 _“It's not my job to trust anybody that's you were here for! I am freezing the payments! Do you hear me, Lehnsherr?_ ”

Erik pushed the covers off himself, stepping onto the carpet and headed for the bathroom. He needed that money, regardless of how he got it. He pushed open the door of the bathroom and headed straight to the shower.

“Mr. Shaw, I need you to calm down. We can talk this through. I’ll come over to your office and--”

_“No, no, you cannot come here! Do not come here! My company has an old airbase just outside the city that is out of use. I’ll text you the address and you better be there in an hour!”_

The angry CEO didn’t give him a chance to confirm as the line went dead. Erik put the phone onto the counter, looking away from the sink and into the mirror as the shower ran. Tired eyes looked back at him, his face was pale from lack of sleep, hair laying flat on one side, and he was still in his clothes from the night before.

After a good shower and change of clothes Erik made his way to the airbase boots, clicked slightly echoing in the empty air base. The sunlight barely streamed in from the high broken out windows, large crates and old parts made the place into more of an abandoned warehouse maze.

The ex-investigator paused at the sound of other voices echoing in the room, familiar voices that made him brow furrow.

“Where’s my money?”

“You better not be pointing that gun at me, girly.”

“You took it--”

“How could I have taken it? Beast was the last one with the drive.”

Erik stepped around the corner, his cohorts stood looking at each other with tensions high. Mystique had a gun pointed with a stern glare at Havok who looked more pissed off and annoyed than afraid.

“Hey!” he called out, walking toward them. Mystique turned and pointed the gun at him. both eyes looked him up and down as if trying to figure out if he could’ve hidden the money somewhere on his body.

Mystique was the first to scowl, “My money isn't in my account. That makes me cry inside, in my special angry place.”

“Did you do it?” Havok questioned face losing some of the annoyance. “You are the one who has played on both sides.”

Mystique turned the gun back to the hitter who rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his leather jacket. The german looked Havok over and raised an eyebrow crossing his arms.

“You look pretty calm for a guy who has a gun pointed at him.” He said. Havok sighed.

“The safety is on,” he said glancing at the gun. Mystique’s brow furrowed.

“Like I’m falling for that!” the thief said, squaring her shoulders and meeting Havok’s eyes.

“No, actually he’s right,” Erik chimed in, “The safety is on.”

Mystique blinked and pointed the gun down to look at the side of it. With a quick reflex, Havok took the automatic from her hand easily, disarming it and separating the clip.

“Damn it! Erik!” Mystique swore and turned back to Havok.

“You armed?” Erik asked also turning to the hitter.

The blond male rolled his eyes and opened his jacket to show that he had nothing.

“I don’t like guns” He replied

Quiet footsteps had them all turning to see an unarmed Beast walking towards them, what looked to be his laptop bag slung across his shoulder, and joined their tight knit circle.

At the sight of him, something in Eric’s gut felt off. It was like the tips of his fingers tingled and something was playing at the back of his head that he couldn’t quite pin point.

“So you came here to get paid right?” he asked. Beast shook his head lightly

“It supposed to be a walk away, I'm never supposed to see you again.” Havok growled, running his hand through his hair though all it did was fall back to where it was before.

Something seemed to click inside Erik’s head. “So you’re all here because you didn’t get paid,” he said slowly, looking at each one of their faces. The German cracked a smile, “And you’re all angry.”

“Why is he laughing?” Beast whispered to Havok. The blond ignored bifocal ed man, watching the ex-investigator like a hawk. He might not have always liked the Shark but he was good at his job and if he’s laughing in situation costing them $300, 000 than he knew that something was up.

Erik laughed a little more before he spoke again, “I mean, the only way to get us all in the same place, at the same time…”

His smile fell and her eyes met the other three as things began to click into place.

“…is to tell us we’re not getting paid,” Mystique finished.

There was a silence between them as they each began to understand the gravity of the situation. This was no longer a walk away job, no longer a payment for the dirty work. This was now tying up loose ends. There was a split second, a quiet ‘tick’ echoed in the emptiness of the airbase.

A fire was lit under their heels in seconds, all four of them ran back the way they came, dodging crates and boxes as they went. None stopped to look behind them,

All of them could see the stream of light that shone from under the small garage door. Erik ran for the control panel first, pressing down on the OPEN button as they all ran toward their salvation. Mystique was the smallest so she slid through the small opening easily, Beast was next followed by Havok.

Erik’s heart beat in his ears, when heard another quicker ‘tick’ and couldn’t help but look behind him as he moved under the door. Bright yellow flames, a rush of heat filled his bones with panic. An explosion threw their bodies to the hard concrete with force, debris flew in all directions.

Then everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5

The Ex investigator gasped as he woke, Havok looked at him, watching as Erik shot upright and realized that his wrist was a bit restricted in movement just like the rest of them, ash and dirt on his clothes, his dark hair smudged with grime

“You don’t like hospitals very much, do you?” the blond commented, watching the sharp toothed german try to get his wits about his while figuring out where he was. The handcuff clanked against the metal railing of his hospital bed as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed like himself.

He had situated himself comfortably, feet placed firmly on the ground as he watched and waited for their last person at this party woke up.

“Not particularly.” He winced, rolling his shoulders.

“Finally! You’re awake.” A woman’s voice rang through the room. Erik looked around confused before her eyes landed on the small vent near the ceiling, “Cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up.”

“Mystique?” He asked.

“Adjoining rooms.” Havok filled in.

“Where are we?” Erik asked, trying to look around the white walled hospital room. He had seen the inside of hospitals longer than he ever wanted to for the rest of his life. He knew what he was looking at but the problem wasn’t the inside but what was waiting for them outside. God, he was already thinking like a criminal.

“A county hospital, local cops were the first to respond to the explosion.” Beast's voice came through the vent as well, obviously they were a bit  low on holding cells so they could only spare unused ER rooms

“Have we been processed?” Erik asked, looking at Havok. The blond man then lifted his hand and showed off the black ink on each finger pad. Erik groaned.

“They’ve been faxed to the state police.” Mystique said, running a hand through her unruly curls.

“If the state’s run us, were screwed,” Beast said, his voice was a mix of panic and annoyance echoing through the vent.

“How long?” Havok asked.

“Thirty to thirty-five minutes depending on the software,” Beast replied.

Erik glared at the stark white sheets, his brain working as fast as it could. He had never been on the other side of processing. He had brought guys like them, thieves looking to dupe their insurance company, to justice. He watched them get processed. He had never been processed and when all the information came through, it was his who would have a perfect record not them. All because of Shaw.    

“They printed us twenty minutes ago.” Havok sighed, leaning his head back against the wall.

“So unless we get out of here in the next ten minutes, we’re all going to jail,” Mystique growled,  spinning the useless cuffs around her finger, pacing the room. It was bad enough that she was caught to begin with but now she was placed in a room with the one person who was useless within this ragtag team. Well, useless without a keyboard and monitor. The thief looked over dark haired male, cuffed to the bed, though the way he moved about made it look like he had to pee or something.

“I can take these cops,” Havok said, off handedly, with a small shrug.

“Don’t you dare. If you kill anyone, you’ll ruin my get away,” Mystique warned angrily through the other room.

“Mystique! Get me a phone. What we’re going to do is, we’re going to get out of here together,” Erik said sternly, rattling the cuff against his wrist.

“This was suppose to be a one time deal.” The hitter pointed out, distrust was still coating his features.

“Look guys here’s your problem, you all know what you can do, I know what all you guys can do, so that gives me the edge, gives me the plan. Working together is the only way to get out of here,” Erik set his jaw, his words were clear and without waiver. He was not going to let them rot in jail for believing that they were actually helping someone.

A silence took over the two rooms.

“I don’t trust them,” Mystique confessed.

Erik looked up at the air vent. “Do you trust me?” he called back to the girl.

More silence spoke volumes of the thoughts that ran through their heads. They were thieves, they weren’t supposed to trust anyone. Trusting meant they opened themselves up for failure and none of them could afford that in the field.

“Of course, you’re one of the good guys,” she said a tone of truth to her voice.

“Then you need to get me a phone. Now”

Mystique stopped her pacing, and looked to Beast, sighing in defeat.

“This is going to suck,” she mumbled before she took the cuff and placed it back on her wrist and to the bedrail again, the dark haired man watched her and with two fingers she stuck them down her throat.

“Ah man. Gross.”

It took only a call for the nurse and five minutes of bustling as janitors cleaned the vomit before the doctor, a nurse and several armed county officers were inside the room. Mystique laid back in the bed, putting on her best ‘sick’ face as the doctor waited for the thermometer to beep between her lips. Officers stood by the boys, the nurse and doctor had their back to the room as they kept an eye on her.

Mistake one: never turn your back on a thief.

The doctor clicked his tongue as he took the thermometer from her lips, looking at the perfect temperature flashing back at him.

“Well, vomiting could be a result of concussion. We’ll keep you on fluids and keep an eye on you.” The doctor smiled, trying to forget that there were armed officers in the room of criminals. He turned his back to the girl as he gave the nurse the thermometer to get rid of the sanitary film for him. With a smile, he exited the room with everyone else following him out.

With the click of the door, Mystique sat up with a smirk. An iPhone between her fingers. Beast smiled back from his bed, holding up a flip phone. She raised an eyebrow then smiled to show off the handcuff keys between her teeth.

“You got them?” Erik’s voice echoed from the vent.

“Yeah,” Mystique called back, taking the keys from her lips to unlock herself before throwing them to Beast.

“Beast, I need you to do your thing. Give them a reason to let us out, I need FBI.” Erik instructed, “Mystique pass me a phone I can use.”

Beast smirked, “Got it.” He held out his hand for the iPhone. Mystique threw it at him instead, not bothering to watch him fumble before she stood on the bed and shoved the flip phone through the vent slats.

Erik held out his free hand as he watched the flip phone be pushed through the white vent until it free fell down into his palm. Havok watched the way Erik’s lips moved upwards,  as he looked through the older phone.

“They're expecting a phone call right?” The German stated looking at the blond and tossing him the phone.

He caught it and looked down at the screen. With a smirk he pressed SEND and brought the phone to his ear. It only took a couple of rings before it was answered. The nurse quickly handed the phone to the nearest officer outside their door.

_“Deputy Burns.”_

“Yes, this is detective lieutenant Stilton of the New York State Police, we got those prints you sent us. They’re sending up all kinds of red flags. I have someone on the line for you from the FBI up there in Washington, can you hold, son?” he put on his Midwest accent as he spoke.

Despite what most people would think to overstated or cliché, most marks like to believe clichés. It made their mundane life interesting, especially cops.

_“Uh, yes of course.”_

Havok looked back over to Erik before throwing him the phone. The man caught it and placed it up to his ear, his face had a serious look as he waited a moment before speaking.

“Deputy Burns, this is deputy director Johnson from the FBI, is our man alright?”

_“Sorry, sir, I don’t follow--”_

“Deputy, listen to me, the man you have in there is one of ours actually. He’s been deep undercover for three years now.”

_“Seriously?”_

Erik rolled his eyes, “Yes, that’s correct. You should be receiving a fax any moment now confirming what I’m telling you.”

There was a faint rustling on the line and the sound of a high five in the other room making Erik smile like the cat that caught the canary.

“Most of what I have told you is classified,” Erik said, his voice patriotically laced with sternness, “I need to know that I can trust you. Can I?”

 _“Yes, sir.”_ Erik could hear the pride in the deputy’s voice and he gave a nod to blond.

It took no time at all for them to be outside the hospital, loading up a borrowed county police SUV. The cops stood to the side just outside the hospital doors as Beast led each ‘apprehended criminal’ into the car. It was a tight fit but the county cops were eager to give the young FBI agent a helping hand getting them all inside the caged back.

Beast led Havok to the right side of the car, hand on his head as he guided him into the vehicle. The hitter’s head slammed into the edge of the doorway, making the man growl. His glare was furious yet he kept his mouth shut for the sake of the job.

“S-Sorry.” Beast whispered putting him into the car and closing the door. The geek turned to the officers and gave them a sloppy salute that they returned with vigor.

“You, men, are the backbone of the country.” Beast said with a nod before opening the door of the driver’s side.

The sliding doors of the hospital opened as a dark haired nurse walked out towards the proud officers.

“Sir, the state police are on the phone,” she said.

The deputy and his partner had no time to react as the county SUV pulled out of the parking lot.


	6. Chapter 6

Reaching their destination the four began to spread out around the rather spacious loft, everything was expensive from the hard wood floors to the flat screen TV’s and sound system setup. It was on the tenth floor so the windows were large and overlooked the city, letting in the light of the setting sun.

“Four first class tickets to anywhere but here, coming right up.” Beast said quickly, heading straight for the long desk decorated with three flat screen monitors connected to a sleek black keyboard.

“Whose place is this?” Mystique asked, running her hand over the Italian leather couch.

“Mine...” the bifocal man said quietly, without even looking up from his keyboard.

Erik leaned against the couch, crossing his arms over his dirt splattered black shirt, not caring if it got on Beast's furniture

“I’m going to beat Shaw so bad even the people who look like him are going to bleed.” Havok grumbled rubbing his fists in anger.

“Good luck with that. He knows our faces, you won’t be able to get within a hundred yards of him.” Mystique countered sitting down on the edge of the pool table set up by one of the windows. Weird, Beast didn't look like the pool playing type. 

Havok glared at her,

“He tried to kill us.” He countered.

“More importantly, he didn’t pay us,” Mystique mumbled. Havok and Beast looked at her with the same confused face. Erik ran a hand down his face in exasperation.

“How is that more important?” Havok scowled.

“I take that personally.” Mystique shrugged removing her over coat and throwing it on the couch.

“There’s something wrong with you.”

“Hey guys,” Beast called out, Erik had moved from his posion and was now stationed over the hacker's shoulder to the sites he had pulled up on the monitors, “Look, Shaw was at least half way honest. He is the head of aerospace company and is a big rival of Laley. But check out what my web crawler caught.”

The middle monitor pulled up a news video, a dark haired man wearing shades and a suit was in the forefront of media.

_“We’ve lost research that we’ve been working on for over five years. Our servers have been sabotaged. Now we’re going to pursue these perpetrators to the full extent of the law and with all the resources we have at our disposal…”_

Havok walked up on the other side of Beast and shrugged, “Could be a cover story.”

Beast shook his head and pulled up a series of code on the third monitor, scrolling through the window of numbers, “The copy code is time stamped, 2009…2010…way down into the code. There’s no reason to fake those.”

The hacker glanced up at Havok before shifting his gaze to Erik who had been silent since they had walked in. The blond noticed the stiffness of the German’s shoulders, the way his head tilted down in thought and his forehead held lines in them. Beast felt the same, looking to the man who knew more about the law than the rest of them only because he was obviously on the wrong side of the tracks.

“So we didn’t steal back the designs?” Havok said, annoyance written all over his raised upper lip.

“No, we just stole them,” Mystique replied with a huff, her feet swung off the floor.

“Why would Shaw lie to us?” Beast questioned, pivoting his chair a little to look between the other three.

Erik sighed, “Because you’re thieves.”

All eyes were on him again.

“If he hired you for a straight up crime, you’d know he was a bad guy like you. You’d be on to him. This way you just saw him as another citizen in over his head and that’s why you didn’t see the double cross coming,” Erik explained, he moved to the left, leaning into dark haired boy’s space, to take a better look at the article Beast had pulled up.

“Then how come you didn’t see it coming?” Mystique asked with a sneer.

Erik glanced back at her, “Like I said before, I’m not a thief.”

Havok frowned crossing his arms across his chest, “Maybe that’s the problem, maybe you-”

“Hey, cool it guys,” Beast pleaded, using his long legs to leap over the couch and toward the active printer. He grabbed the papers he had sent from his laptop and began to hand them out, “Tickets to London, Paris, Rome, and Sydney. All fake identities, all crossed with social securities and--”

“You’re running,” Erik said, his eyes on the article still, his hands braced on the desk.

All three looked up from their tickets to Erik, Beast still clenching the german's ticket out to the air.

“Yeah you have a better idea, shark tooth?” Havok countered.

“No, no. You’re running,” he mumbled, eyes scanning the screen clicking on the market article ‘Ruise Aerospace showing gains this quarter’. “Now that was a high-risk play. You got your balls tied to the stock price like a cinder block. A shareholder meeting coming up.”

Beast moved back to his chair, reading the article as well, before typing a few things on one of the other screens.

“We can’t let this guy have any time to cool down,” Erik said.

“You want to run a game on this guy?” Havok asked, his disbelief obvious in his eyes, “ _You_?”

Erik turned away from the monitors, meeting the man’s hard stare,

“Yeah. I mean, how do you think I got most of my stolen merchandise back? I mean, this guy is  greedy, he thinks he’s smart. He’s the best kind of mark.” Erik crossing his arms across his chest, staring the ex-marine down without a hint of doubt in himself.

“He does think he got rid of us.” Beast said lowly looking at the others.

“Element of surprise,” Mystique smirked from his chair.

“What’s in it for me?” Havok asked, looking Erik up and down. He let a smile play at the corner of his lips, a challenge in those dark depths that held his gaze. He remembered this Erik Lehnsherr in Budapest, the Erik he had learned not to underestimate years ago.

“Pay back and if it goes right, a lot of money,” He said.

“What about me?” Mystique chimed in. The ex-insurance investigator turned to her and shrugged,

“A lot of money and if it goes right, pay back,” He replied. He saw the smirk on her face and knew that he had her.

“Beast?” he asked. The brunette rubbed the bridge of his nose, glasses raised slightly, before looking up to them.

“I was just going to send thousands of porno magazines to his office, but yeah, I guess I’m in” Beast grinned.

Havok placed his hand on the older man’s shoulder, “What’s in it for you?”

Erik looked into his green eyes, letting the memories flood the walls he had put up in the last couple of weeks.

_“Magda!” Fists slammed against the locked glass doors of the ICU, “Magda!”_

_“We’re losing her!”_

_“Heart rate is dropping!”_

_“Magda!”_

Havok watched Erik close his eyes after they had glazed over for a moment. He righted himself, shaking the hitter’s hand from his shoulder.

“He used my wife,” He said softly.

Mystique and Beast looked from the two stronger males in the room, unsure on what was going on or what they were missing. Erik looked at them and took a deep breath before fixing his blazer and walking towards the door,

“Let’s go steal us an aerospace company.”


	7. Chapter 7

~.~

“We need someone new.” Erik spoke loudly as the four thieves sat around Beast’s living room, “ A fresh face, someone Shaw doesn't know. Someone smart, and good. Any ideas?”

A glint formed in Mystique’s eye as she suddenly stood, “I know just the guy!” With much enthusiasm she grabbed Beast’s wrist and pulled him up, towards the door, leaving the other two to awkwardly wait and the blond dragged the bifocal man out the door. A couple seconds later, Mystique reappeared at the doorway, looking impatient. “You guys coming or what?"

~.~

The next thing they know the group found themselves outside a tall university building, college students were mulling about as Mystique guided them to one of the large classroom. An English accented voice could be heard talking through the door. 

Erik gave the blond thief a glance and pushed open the door to reveal a shorter man with thick curly hair, gabbing away, very invested in his speech, translating to overacting, dramatic gestures, to the room of bored looking students.

His speech went on for a while before the Englishman dismissed the bored students and began packing  up this things.

“...Are you sure about this?” Beast asked, sounding very genuinely confused.

“Yup!” Mystique said happily, “you heard what Erik said, we need someone new, someone that Shaw hasn’t seen. A fresh face.” And then she moved forward, grinning at the curly hair until “Excellent as always,” 

The man turned back around with a shocked yet happy look upon his face, before opening his arms to the blond which she excitedly filled. 

“Well hello my dear” He spoke kindly, moving one hand to brush the blond locks from her face. “Now what are you doing here? Last time I checked you were in China?”

Mystique’s smile grew wider, gesturing to the three other males still lingering at the doorway. Erik was the first to move followed by Havok and then Beast, the brunette eyes filling with a strange emotion that the German couldn't distinguish. 

The English man stayed silent for a second following the three men’s moves.

“Erik Lehnsherr, now what are you doing here?”

Erik raised a brow at the shorter man, for he had never seen him, and Erik would remember someone like this man with his mop of dark hair and piercing blue eyes, “I’m sorry but have we met before?”

“Oh yes, many times, though never face to face.” Letting go of Mystique, the man journeyed around his desk only to lean across it, chin cradled into his hands “But besides that, what is it I can do for you?”

“We need your help with a little issue we’re having.”

Leaning further onto the desk the man opened his mouth “What kind of issue?”

Mystique gave a little smirk “The kind of issue where we need the great Professor X.”

Ahhh that explained it. Professor X was one of the finest Grifters Erik had ever seen, even if Erik had never seen the man himself, well that was until now.  

Professor X removed his chin from his hands and stood “Is that s o?”

“So are you in?” Havok finally spoke.

Another smile stretched across the Professor’s lip. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“Alright then, let’s go break the law.”

~.~

Back at Beast’s apartment, the taller man had rigged up the flat screen TV’s as a presentation board, featuring: lots of candid photos of Shaw.

“Sebastian Shaw, executive vice-president in charge of new technology development over at Bering Aerospace.” Beast said flipping through a few more slides. “He has a rich father, a trust fund, Yale MBA, Et cetera.” The brunette clicks through his slides, rolling his eyes when Havok squeezes past him with a bowl of popcorn.

They're all seated around the low table in front of the TV, The German is perched on the arm of the couch, next to an irate Mystique staring melodramatically into space and Beast is crowded between the two blondes, the Professor only casually leaning against the back of the couch. 

“Sebastian.” Erik wrinkled his nose. “Now when was the last time you met a Sebastian?”

Havok gave a little shrug “Vietnam. Town called Banho Zay.”

Professor X turned to the hitter “Chinese border.”

The blond then also turned to the other male, eyebrows raised in question. “That’s an odd thing for you to know.”

“That’s an odd place for you to be.” The professor challenged back.

“Now Bering is in charge of a lot of big fat government contracts.  Beast continued gathering the other’s attention back to the screen. “Some Department of Defense research, very classified stuff.”

Mystique questioned folding her legs over his own “Can we use that?”

Beast shook his head “No, I don’t think so. Shaw is in charge of their commercial airline business.”

"Beast, when we stole the designs for Shaw, we were instructed not to make any copies," Erik stated, staring at the hacker.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Lehnsherr," Beast replies, face bent slightly downwards. "That would be a breach of contract."

"Show me your copies." The two looked at each other unblinkingly before Beast relents, changing the slide again. This time, it consists of blueprints.

Erik considered them, for a moment.

“That’s a short-haul domestic airliner,” he said.  "Typically in charge of short, one hour flights or less. It's the fastest-growing segment of the industry, very fuel-efficient, high-tech…” He considered a little closer, eyeing the included notes. “Carbon nose, titanium wrap…” He then raised his head, noticing the others staring at him. “...You pick up things.”

“You apparently picked up a lot of things,” Havok mutters, drawing a small giggle from the bifocal man next to him. 

“So anyway guys, check this out.” Beast pulled up a few more files. “Now Shaw and Laley they were head to head for five years trying to grab the lead in an industry that’s worth like fifty-billion dollars.”

“So Lahey got there first, and Shaw took a shortcut.” Mystique adds, narrowing her eyes.

“So he has a rival,” Erik said, and he leaned against the back of Beast’s chair without really thinking about it. “A rival that makes him so utterly furious he’s willing to turn to theft. This is good.” . 

“What’re you thinking, Erik?” The professor asks tipping his head back to to peer at the German.

“I’m thinking Nigerians,” Erik said, a slow grin playing across his face. “Yeah, Nigerians will do nicely.”


	8. Chapter 8

 

Charles liked his job. Charles really, very sincerely loved his job, really, especially when his job included Swindling an asshole who tried to kill his younger sister. Which, look, right on time.

“Um,” the secretary coughed and sat up, attempting to look professional, and not like she was watching cat videos from her work computer. “Mr. Shaw, sir, your 9 o’clock is here.”

“What?” Shaw looked briefly confused, and Charles wiggled his fingers, striding forward and offering a hand with a fake business card, the usually cheerful, and calm expression with that of a cold and calculating one.

“Alex Gunschtot,” he introduced himself english accent replaced with a smooth, African accent instead. “With the African Commercial Transport and Trade Initiative.” Shaw took the card, looking rather nonplussed.

“Are you Government?” Shaw asks, heading into his office, beckoning Charles to follow.

"No, no. Private business consortium.” Charles corrected. “ We’re looking to encourage infrastructure development and economic renewal."

“And what does that mean, precisely?” Shaw asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We create jobs and trade in Africa,” Charles replied, looking amused, “keep the ah, graft and stealing manageable.”

The older businessman outright laughs at this statement. “Keep graft and stealing manageable you say? I don’t think I can help you with that.” Shaw continues. “I build airplanes, not miracles, Mr. Gunsdott.”

Charles chuckles again "Why don't we talk somewhere a little less formal, hmm?" He beckoned, walked out of the office, knowing that Shaw would have practically no choice but to follow. People were so terribly easy to manipulate.

~.~

While Charles laid the groundwork with Shaw, there was other work to be done.

“Hank?” Erik nodded to the hacker, (which by the way felt very strange to say after calling him Beast all of these years, but somehow Charles had convinced the crew to share their real names.) who was already breaking into the secretary’s computer, substituting her background for a blue error screen.

"No, no, no," the secretary whimpers on screen. She hits several keys that Hank could tell, even with grainy resolution of the security camera feed he was channelling onto his screen, would never help her in this situation. Finally, the secretary sighs and picks up the phone.

“Hello, IT,” Raven chirped. She was tucked into a maintenance shaft, having hooked herself into the building’s phone system.

“Yeah, this is Sebastian Shaw’s office,” The secretary said, and boy did she sound frustrated, “my computer just completely crashed, and I can’t get it to do anything?”

“I’m sorry to hear that, have you tried turning it off and back on?” The thief asked, swishing her legs around to occupy herself.

“Yes and nothing seems to be working!” She groaned. “Could you just...send someone?”

“We already have someone on your floor, he’ll be there shortly.”

And that was Alex’s cue to stride in, adjusting fake glasses and smiling for all the world like he was the buffest, nerdiest IT man around.

“Hi, uh, did somebody call IT?”

~.~

Charles had gotten Shaw out onto the rather lovely plaza near the Bering offices, and so far, he seemed to have the man hooked.

"I represent a group of investors who are looking to start an airline for short-haul flights in Africa," Charles explains as he slides a fingertip along the railing. He makes sure to keep his gaze off of Shaw, subtly establishing the other as the dominant person in this conversation, despite Charles' role presenting the offer.

_'When the other person is used to being in a position of power, be the deferent one in the exchange and the other person will be more likely to indulge you. People subconsciously treat men differently, so you have to be able to use that to your advantage, create trust. Push when you think you have the upper hand, and not a moment before,'_

"Out of Johannesburg?"

 _‘He’s testing you,’_ Erik said, _‘you’ll want_ _Bloemfontein_ _’_ Charles hummed briefly as acknowledgement.

"We want to keep away from the hubs, revitalize the regional airports," he informs the taller brunette. "Bloemfontein in South Africa, for example." He turns his head in the business man's direction, but only speaks to his shoulder. "But it's Nigeria we're really focused on."

 _‘Perfect,’_ Erikcomplimented.

"I must admit, Lagos airport runways are a mess," Shaw said, sounding dubious and the englishman can tell that he's warming up to the idea.

"I believe new airways will help people feel more comfortable,” Charles said, idly, “while we renew old runways,"

“Is that so.” Shaw said, eyeing him. “I don’t think I said anything about new airplanes.”

“Sebastian,” The grifter said, because the more familiar approach was a good charm method, “we both know that you and your chief engineer are scheduled to speak at your shareholder’s meeting.”

“You seem to know more about my business than I do,” Shaw replies with a grin, no tenseness at all.

“I did my research,” Charles said, flashing Shaw a grin.

Hook, line, and sinker.


End file.
